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By Jeremy Quintin

Elm Staff Writer

College takes a major toll on our psyches. Caught between a large workload, encroaching due dates, personal defeat, self-realization, and our own psychological torments and limitations, it’s easy for us to slip out of a stable mind and into deep-seated depression.

There are times when after a particularly stressful day of whatever chaos you’ve been put through, everything seems to get you down. Whether you’re at a tragic moment in your life, or everything seems to be changing for the worse, reality is going to throw some major emotional baggage to you at times, and you’re not always going to be ready to catch.

So it’s nice to know about places like Emotional Bag Check which can help us through the darker hours of our lives. Emotional Bag Check (www.emotionalbagcheck.com) is a website dedicated to helping people get through their depressive problems with the aid of music.

This is how it works: at the main page, you have the option to either check in your emotional baggage or carry someone else’s emotional baggage. When you check in your own baggage, you write down what’s been bugging you lately into a submission box, then provide your email and click “check it.” Within minutes, you’ll have one or two responses from people who read your words and are now offering you a song that they think will help you through your problem.

Nobody actually sees your email; the site protects your identity and only allows people to look at your submission. Sometimes you can receive suggestions or words of condolence from the person to go along with the song. On the flipside, you can choose to carry someone’s baggage, in which you read their problem, and then choose a song you think will help them out, and possibly write some words of wisdom for extra comfort.

It’s a cute site with a very neat idea. Music is a very therapeutic way of dealing with emotional problems. Whether it’s relaxing, expressive, or distracting, music isn’t just about pleasurable sound or brilliant composition, but also the imagery and comfort with which it provides us. I’ve had a lot of fun myself offering people songs that I think relate to them, and I’ve also received some very kind words and awesome tunes to expand my library with.

Some people who read this article will definitely gasp. They’ve probably realized that there are going to be those who talk about some very serious problems and who are better off seeking medical help than discussing them openly with strangers, and there will also be those world-renowned jerks who, instead of sending kind words, will send words of hate.

So here’s the thing. The site isn’t intended to be a true counsel for people, as the FAQ explains. It’s meant as a neat idea (which it certainly is), and it doesn’t expect nor profess that it helps those who are distraught. Instead it provides resources to actual professionals who help people with depression.

That said, as better as it would be for someone to seek professional help, sometimes we can’t easily communicate with those in life who will remember our flaws, and we find it much easier to talk to people who will never truly know us. At times a few kind words are all we need to bring ourselves out of our funks, or a fantastic song to lighten our moods. While we’re still gambling against potentially hurtful words, we have to realize that what we are doing is a favor to ourselves.

Any cruel words are things you can consider worthless on the internet, and when you receive something kind, don’t think of it as a gift from somebody, but as something you set out to get for yourself, since that’s the purpose of the site: to feel better through music. I know that words can be tough to deal with (having had a fair share said to me in the past), but there are still those on the site who come to actually help others, like yourself when you help another in need.